4 hours ago
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When all the layer cakes are baked and iced, I will always love a slice of pretty patterned bundt. Especially one that is lightened with the perfect amount of baking powder (overly dense bundts are stodgy sadness) and brightened with limes and yoghurt.
Cake goop – a mix of flour, oil and butter – is a gift of guaranteed cake release that I found on the internet, and it means no more stuck bundts. Bless the baker who invented it! Goop has it all – release, plus enough sticking power to hold the batter as it rises and cools, without slumping. Additionally, mixing the flour with oil means you don’t get that fine, white, dusty crust on the outside of the cooked cake. Goop is 100% reliable with a 100% untarnished release record in my kitchen.
If you do have a small stuck piece of cake, shimmy it out of the tin with an offset spatula and patch it back on to the cake while warm. Pretty easy! If a whole ring of cake has stuck, cut it into workable sections, prise each out and place back on the cake. Drench the bundt with icing sugar after its soak to hide the Franken-bundt’s monster appearance.
The recipe calls for the eggs to be warmed before cracking. Warmer-than-room- temperature eggs emulsify into the creamed base better, and an emulsified mix means no “curdled” appearance. To do this, submerge the uncracked eggs in hot tap water for five minutes.
The cake will keep for three days, covered, at room temperature. And it freezes perfectly for up to three months.
Lime and yoghurt bundt cake – recipe
Makes 1 bundt or a 20cm round cake
Takes 2-3 hours
For the cake goop
20g plain flour (10% protein)
20g vegetable oil
20g unsalted butter, squidgy soft, at 22C
For the cake batter
6 juicy limes
400g caster sugar
280g unsalted butter, soft, at 20C
5 eggs, warmed, but uncracked
375g soft plain flour (8-9% protein)
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp fine sea salt
240g plain yoghurt, at room temperature, or microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring in between, to de-chill
For the lime syrup
250g lime juice (from the limes used for the cake batter)
300g icing sugar mix
Preheat the oven to 170C/150C fan.
Make the cake goop by mixing the ingredients into a paste, then brush it into every nook and cranny of the bundt tin. Set the tin aside.
Make the batter. Zest the limes, then in a bowl rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers to release maximum fragrant oil. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and lime sugar on medium speed for around six to eight minutes until the mix is pale and fluffy. Stop and scrape the side down once or twice during the creaming. In a separate bowl, crack the eggs, whisk and weigh 250g, then add to the mixer bowl in three batches, beating after each addition, then beat for another five minutes on medium speed.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and push the batter off the paddle. Sift half the flour mix over the top and fold it in with a sturdy plastic spatula. When it is almost fully mixed in, fold in half the yoghurt. Repeat with the remaining flour, then the remaining yoghurt. Make sure the final mix is very thorough so no flour or yoghurt streaks remain. Scrape the batter into the bundt tin and carefully smooth the top with a spoon.
Bake for 60 to 70 minutes until the cake has a fawn-coloured crust, the top has gently puffed and cracked, and a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the bundt comes out clean (internal temperature should be 95C).
Make the syrup while the cake bakes. Place the icing sugar in a wide bowl and hand-whisk half the juice in. Then whisk in the remaining juice. (By making a thick paste first, then thinning with the remaining juice, you can avoid sifting the icing sugar.)
Remove the cake from the oven. Using a metal skewer, poke lots of holes in the top of the cake, then slowly spoon half the syrup over the cake – it will attempt to run off the sides but concentrate most of the syrup on the open cracked ring of cake on the top. It’s quite mesmerising to watch it soak in. Leave for 10 minutes.
Invert the cake on to a serving plate. With a skewer, poke a few fine holes on the top and inner ring wall and brush more syrup over. I have given you a little extra syrup if you want a super-soaked cake, but I brush on two coats, then dab it again as it cools. Cool for 30 minutes before cutting the first slice.
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This is an edited extract from Sweet Heart by Natalie Paull, with photography by Rochelle Eagle, available in Australia 1 September through Murdoch Books, $49.99
